Chatting later today with Lori Petty, in advance of the final Los Angeles Film Festival screening of her autobiographical directorial debut, The Poker House, at 7 p.m. at the Majestic Crest Theatre in Westwood. Monday afternoon’s screening, at the Landmark Theatre, was unfortunately marred by technical difficulties, but an in-attendance Petty picked the perfect lull in the proceedings for this interjection from the dark: “I’m sorry about this guys. It’s not the print, because it’s the same one from Friday night (the movie’s world premiere). So I’m sad… and angry.”

I just put a bullet in Friday evening’s episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, with both Anne Hathaway and Romany Malco guesting, and it has a peculiar flavor of improbable victory and defeat when viewed through the lens of the weekend box office shakedown of Get Smart and The Love Guru, their respective projects.

Hathaway was in full, flirty, hard-sell mode, peddling stories of her alt-porn name (Sandy Chestnut) and anecdotes about doing absinthe shots with Steve Carell during an in-production jaunt to Russia. She also laughed giddily — the forward-leaning, eager-to-placate kind of laugh — at all of O’Brien’s jokes, and reminisced about her a cappella experience at Vassar, something she shared with Conan’s wife. Plenty of charm overall, but it still felt nervous and clutchy — there was a desperateness to please, with Hathaway talking about how people were really responding so positively to the movie, which is what one says when they’re pitching a film about Sudanese orphans or a crack-smoking high school teacher, not a big summer action-comedy.

Malco, meanwhile, was all smooth angles and charisma, talking about skating, which he had to pick up for the movie (“If you suffer from NoAssAtAll, put on some skates…”) and sharing how it helped bring him together with fiancée Taryn Dakha, stand-in and stunt and body double for Jessica Alba. And yet look at how the theatrical gate shook down. As much as Carell’s star is waxing, this beat-down really is a referendum on Mike Myers as much as anything else.

All due respect to legendarily acerbic comedian George Carlin, who passed away Sunday evening at the age of 71. Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John’s Health
Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain
and died later that night, according to his publicist Jeff Abraham. He had
performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel
in Las Vegas.

In addition to cheekily assaying Eastern-influenced self-help culture, The Love Guru also lets Mike Myers get his musical ya-yas out. The movie opens with a version of the theme song from 9 to 5, works in a scrupulous, sitar-influenced cover of the 1990 acoustic shut-up-and-fuck-me ballad “More than Words,” from Extreme (right down to a mimicking of the moves from the shot-in-the-round music video), and closes with a Bollywood version of Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker” under the end credits. Yes, seriously.

Raj, Rerun, Dwayne and the gang are back one last time tomorrow when a complete series DVD set of 1970s sitcom classic What’s Happening! goes on sale at online and brick-and-mortar retailers. To check out a few scenes from the series, gratis, click here, here and here. Meanwhile, to buy the set via Amazon, click here.

Jenna Fischer appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman last night, in promotion of The Promotion, a quiet but good little movie that could use the extra push. After joking with Letterman about the slightly more revealing dress that she opted out of, Fischer talked a bit about recovering from her back injury of last year, taking up jogging, and picking oranges from a tree in the yard of the neighbor of The Office costar Steve Carell, whose house gives her a nice mile-and-a-half route. She also talked about growing up in the Missouri Ozarks, and the popularity of Bagnall Dam and “Party Cove,” all of which culminated with an impression of an animatronic man who guards a mock outhouse (one of those regional things, don’tcha know). She’s still something of a newbie on the talk show circuit, but Fischer’s top-shelf skill with comedically-inflected delivery extends to all manner of anecdotes, something I can attest to, having interviewed her this past week. More on that to follow in the coming days…

Am I blogging live from the set of the newly monikered Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen? No, no I am not. But here are some pictures from the set, where shooting is just underway. And here’s a hotter picture of Megan Fox, who we all know is trouble.

The second season of The Boondocks — Aaron McGruder’s politically charged comic strip turned animated series, not to be confused with Troy Duffy’s The Boondock Saints — hits DVD on June 10, with all 13 domestically broadcast episodes, plus two exclusive episodes too hot to air in the United States, as well as audio commentaries and other bonus features. To access clips from the show, click here, here and here. To purchase the set via Amazon, meanwhile, click here.

Soap, the controversial sitcom — headlined by Billy Crystal, Robert Guillaume, Katherine Helmond and Richard Mulligan — that defined the late 1970s and became an Emmy-winning smash, comes to DVD in full-series form on June 10. To view a few clips from the series, click here, here and here. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, meanwhile, click here.

The faces behind the masks in this weekend’s The Strangers? That would be Kip Weeks, Gemma Ward and Laura Margolis, for those scoring at home…

The Los Angeles Film Festival today announced that Walden Media and New Line Cinema’s Journey to the Center of the Earth will make its world premiere with a special 3-D screening as part of the festival’s annual Family Day celebration on Sunday, June 29, at 3:00 p.m. at the Mann Village Theater. One of the festival’s big summer blockbuster premieres (others include Wanted and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, as noted here) the Journey debut is open to the public. Directed by Eric Brevig, the film stars Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem.

The festival’s popular Family Day celebration, sponsored by Playhouse Disney, will take place on Sunday, June 29 from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Broxton Avenue in Westwood. The one-day event features free screenings, games, booths, live stage performances, pony rides, a petting zoo and more. The Playhouse Disney Tent will host activities throughout the day, including a tentatively scheduled appearance by Handy Manny; there will also be DVD giveaways of Nim’s Island and Her Best Move, plus the Geffen Playhouse’s “Shipwrecked! An Entertainment” activity booth. Family Day will also feature a screening of Walt Disney’s beloved classic Peter Pan, as a tribute to the late Ollie Johnston, whose death in April truly marked the end of an era — that of classic hand-drawn Disney animation. The last of the studio’s original “Nine Old Men,” Johnston worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, Pinocchio and The Jungle Book, among countless other films.

The Los Angeles Film Festival runs from Thursday, June 19 through Sunday, June 29. Over the course of 10 days and 11 nights, the public is invited to take advantage of world premieres including independent films and major studio releases, as well as tribute screenings, outdoor movies, celebrity-filled red carpets and more. Festival passes are now available; individual tickets are available through phone and online sales beginning June 2. For more information, click here.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Sydney Pollack, who last year bowed out of helming the just-released HBO flick Recount for health reasons, passed away Monday evening at the age of 73 from cancer. Very sad, all the way around, as Pollack — who acted in the Oscar-winning Michael Clayton and whose last two films behind the camera were 2005’s The Interpreter and the documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry — was one of the industry’s true nice guys, and a good, thoughtful interview to boot. He had varied interests, but also a real love of films in general, as evidenced by the fact that you could hold an interesting conversation with him about movies in which he was not involved.

With the beginning of pre-production on The Hobbit in sight, executive producer Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro will answer fan questions during a live, one-hour live web chat tomorrow, May 24. Fans with an interest in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings should click here to register and submit questions in advance. Del Toro and Jackson will select and answer the 20 most common questions, so forget about all those weight-loss queries. Or, I don’t know… stack the deck — totally your call.

The 2005 Swedish fantasy thriller Storm, from co-directors Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, hits DVD this week via TLA Releasing’s “Danger After Dark” imprint. Starring Eric Ericson, Eva Rose, Lina Englund, Karl Norrhall and Sasha Becker, the film is described as a cross between The Matrix and Nightwatch — a thrill ride with gut-punching action and gory murders, but presumably no Keanu Reeves. Ericson stars as Donny, a slacker whose life takes a terrifying turn when a fiery-haired woman enters his life possessing a box which may hold the answers to the mystery of human existence. Plunged into a harrowing adventure, the pair travel through time and fight off dangerous assassins bent on claiming the mysterious object. But time is quickly running out for Donny, and soon he’s caught up in the battle between good and evil, leaving the very future of mankind in his bloody hands. Housed in a clear Amray case, the DVD comes in 1.85 anamorphic widescreen, with a Dolby 5.1 surround sound Swedish language track with optional English subtitles, as well as an English language dubbed version. To watch the movie’s trailer, click here.

* Halle Berry not included

I generally hate MySpace (and its beta TV site), but for a clip of Hilary Duff, as Yonica Babyyeah, performing “I Want to Blow You (Up)” for John Cusack’s character in the new film War, Inc., click here. One is reminded tangentially of Poe, and also not at all.

It’s neither my best nor most handsome work, and yet there I am on the new, fifth episode of That Indie Film Show, talking about Jeremy Podeswa’s Fugitive Pieces and Garth Jennings’ Son of Rambow, as well as a couple new-to-DVD titles. It’s a couple minutes into the show, which can be accessed on IKlipz.com or by simply clicking here.

Emile Hirsch was on Late Night with Conan O’Brien last night, to promote the cattle-prod to the senses that is Speed Racer. No matter that it’s a $100 million-plus movie; Hirsch still only pulled one segment, which made for a careening anecdotal ride, as he recounted his discovered-in-rerun love for the original cartoon (he’d watch while eating cereal at his dad’s, using A&W Root Beer instead of milk), the movie’s Berlin shoot (including a trailer misunderstanding in which a production assistant mistakenly inferred that Hirsch was/is gay), and audience reaction to the movie. Nothing about Larry/Lana Wachowski’s sexual reassignment surgery, though. Hmmm. Overall, good times, and a pretty smooth sales job — no sweaty desperation or shown seams.